My Favorite Ever-THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE. Titles are a real chore. Oh, sure, once in a while, one comes to mind immediately, perfectly summing up the story. But more often-- not. For me at least.
What titles have jumped off the shelf at you? What titles perfectly captured the story? What are your favorite book titles in other words? Now I guess it is possible to love the title but not the story, but the two seem like a matched set.
Hemingway seemed to have a knack for it--or perhaps Max Perkins titled them. THE SUN ALSO RISES, A FAREWELL TO ARMS, A MOVABLE FEAST, THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA, FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS. But those titles connote an awfully large canvas, don't they.
And Flannery O'Connor-A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND, EVERTHING THAT RISES MUST CONVERGE, WISE BLOOD. Or is it our memory of these books that makes the titles sing.
42 comments:
The Last Good Kiss
Old Man's War
Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse
Half the Blood of Brooklyn
The Door Into Summer
Of course, sometimes it helps when you know the author.
Jeff M.
THE DOOR INTO SUMMER-have to check that one out.
O'Connor's titles are amazing. She captures the biblical cadence and diction without (usually) resorting to direct allusion.
Anyway, a few titles I like:
• William Gibson's Neuromancer and Burning Chrome
• Richard Stark's The Man With the Getaway Face
• John McFetridge's Dirty Sweet
• Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness
• Adrian McKinty's Dead I May Well Be
• William Golding's The Lord of the Flies
Actually, since you mention Hemingway, there is a story behind the title, THE SUN ALSO RISES. Hemingway considered different titles: FIESTA, RIVERS TO THE SEA, TWO LIE TOGETHER, THE OLD LEAVEN, PERDU, LOST, and THE LOST GENERATION. When he was finished (or nearly finished) with the novel, in late September 1925, Hemingway spent a few days at Chartres where he visited the great cathedral. His notebooks from that visit reveal that THE SUN ALSO RISES and THE OLD LEAVEN were the lead contenders for his choice. The cathedral at Chartres--with its orientation to the rising sun, the symbol of Christ--combined with Hemingway's reading of Ecclesiastes; also a factor was the floor of the cathedral nave which included a maze that symbolized the penitential path of the pilgrim. Put it all together, and then you begin to understand how Hemingway (rather than his superb editor Max Perkins) decided upon the title: THE SUN ALSO RISES (one of the best titles ever for a novel).
Of course, Loren is also correct about O'Connor's titles, which--of course--she often obtained from Biblical and theological sources.
It is not often that you can lump O'Connor and Hemingway in the same conversation.
All good too.
New Hope for the Dead
The Long Goodbye
The Killing of the Tinkers
Sometimes a Great Notion
One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest
Except as great writers.
PERSUASION
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE
KISS MY WHIP
Kiss My Whip?-gotta check that out.
When I was young, I would browse the library--pulling books at random based on their titles. Once I pulled WHEN ALL THE LAUGHTER DIES IN SORROW because it was also the title of a (not very good) song on one of Chicago's early albums. The book was by NFL player Lance Renzell and documented his struggle with exposing himself to young girls. THAT was an eye-opening book for a 13-year-old!
I read more strange books by picking my titles. NEVER LOVE A STRANGER stands out. Had no idea what was going on in that one at that age.
O'Connor and Hemingway are in the same canons these days.
Actually THE DOOR INTO SUMMER: the best thing about it is the title. I forget the preceding reference it makes.
SOMETIMES A GREAT NOTION always jars just a bit with its source in my head..."Sometimes I take a great notion/To go to the river and drown..."
DARKER THAN YOU THINK
JOURNEY TO THE END OF THE NIGHT (too melodramatic?)
BULLET PARK (twice blessed for me)
THE FEMALE MAN
SONGS OF INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE
LIGHT AND POWER
DORMIR AL SOL (TO SLEEP IN THE SUNLIGHT)
THE UNIVERSAL BASEBALL ASSOCIATION...
TROPHIES AND DEAD THINGS
TRUST ME ON THIS
THE ABORTION: AN HISTORICAL ROMANCE 1966 (well, it got my attention at the time...too blatant, certainly)
likewise SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE
TO THE FINLAND STATION (what the Hell does that mean? was my first thought)
RED HARVEST
THE BIG FIX (and not solely for harkening to THE BIG SLEEP, but also for that...)
Donald Westlake had a gift for titles. Two favorites are WHAT'S THE WORST THAT COULD HAPPEN? and SOMEBODY OWES ME MONEY.
Is KISS THE WHIP based on a Spinal Tap album? It has a SMELL THE GLOVE feel to it.
The memory of the text certainly helps. THE STRESS OF HER REGARD.
Loved the book UNIVERSAL BASEBALL ASSOCIATION. Interesting that Kerouac had invented a similar game.
Bullet Park-very good one.
WHAT'S THE WORST THAT CAN HAPPEN makes you want to grab the book and find out. THE APPRENTICESHIP OF DUDDY KRAVITZ. GOODBYE COLUMBUS Do you remember why it's called that?). HOW LIKE AN ANGEL. HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL. A BEAST IN VIEW.
Hazily, I think the Heinlein refers to THE TEMPEST...or was it...
I always thought John D. MacDonald had some evocative titles:
THE BRASS CUPCAKE
A DEADLY SHADE OF GOLD
A BULLET FOR CINDERELLA
Ross Macdonald was pretty good too:
THE ZEBRA-STRIPED HEARSE
THE INSTANT ENEMY
THE GOOD-BYE LOOK
Loved all those colors coming at me year after year from John. THE CHILL wasn't bad either. Heinlein?
Sometimes a great notion captures the public consciousness- And sometimes not.
So many books used to take their titles from the Bible, Shakespeare, or other classic works with which (it was once assumed) all well-read people would be familiar.
Robert Heinlein's THE DOOR INTO SUMMER.
As opposed to Heinlein's editor's HAVE SPACESUIT, WILL TRAVEL, after guess who. Richard Berry and the Sonics ("Have Love, Will Travel") had and provide more fun.
AH!!!
I love good titles and collect them. Two of my favorites are John Farris: "All Heads turn when the Hunt goes by," and Harlan Ellison's "I have no mouth and I must scream."
If you are going to mention The Universal Baseball Association, you should use the correct title which is The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop. I think the title that has stuck with me the longest is My Brother Was an Only Child. Larry McMurtry's The Last Picture Show is another perfect one.
Yes, thanks, and I just adored it.
THE LAST PICTURE SHOW was great on every level, wasn't it? Title, book, movie, everything.
In the noir/crime vein, I've always felt these were pretty cool titles:
Kiss The Blood Off My Hands (Gerald Butler)
Build My Gallows High (Geoffrey Holmes)
So Wicked My Love (Bruno Fisher)
A Taste of Sin (Gil Brewer)
After Dark My Sweet (Jim Thompson)
Dead Low Tide (JDM)
South of Heaven (Thompson again)
The Name of the Game is Death (Dan J. Marlowe)
Farewell My Lovely (Chandler)
And they're all terrific reads!
They are Frank and I wonder if we would remember them if they weren't.
You can't go wrong with Orrie Hitt, George.
Also, Orrie Hitt is a great name for a hardboiled writer!
I thought of The Long Goodbye too, Patti. Also the Ellison title (I Have No Mouth...).
Other good Westlake titles: Butcher's Moon, Dancing Aztecs, I Gave at the Officeand Baby, Would I Lie?
Jeff M.
I agree, Patti. A great title for a bad book is probably soon forgotten.
Maybe if I'd called myself Orrie Hitt, things would be very different. Baby, Would I Lie? Some writers have a knack for it.
A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES
THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING
THE BIG SLEEP
CALL OF THE WILD
DOORWAYS IN THE SAND
I HAVE NO MOUTH AND I MUST SCREAM
THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS
THE GRAPES OF WRATH
LET THE NIGHT CRY
Great list. Looks like having big or good or last in a title may serve a writer well.
Stephen King's short story All That You Love Will Be Carried Away--beautiful and a very suiting title.
I would have to go with (in no particular order):
THE GIRL WITH THE LONG GREEN HEART (Lawrence Block)
DEATH OF A GUNFIGHTER (Lewis B Patten)
THE GUNS OF HEAVEN (Pete Hamill)
SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER (David Goodis)
LA CONFIDENTIAL (James Ellroy)
THE ASPHALT JUNGLE (W R Burnett)
SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER is brilliant, especially.
I remember a Brother Juniper cartoon from the late 50's/early 60's in which Juniper indignantly returns a copy of From Here to Eternity to a bookstore. The caption: "You really can't tell a book from its cover!" (Brother Juniper was a single-panel newspaper strip by Fr. Justin "Fred" McCarthy; it ran from 1958-1989 and was quite popular in its time.)
BTW: word verification is GATOZO, which I think is Bill Crider's wrestling name.
Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said
Repent Harlequin Said The Ticktock Man
Tunnel In The Sky
The Stars My Destination
That last one was most of our dreams back when we were young.
Repent Harlequin Said The Ticktock Man-amazing title-but THE STARS MY DESTINATION-is perfect.
I'm hopeless at titles. I've just got the proofs for The White Gallows, which I had a complete blank on. 'Remember the Dead' has just been suggested to me as a better title, especially given the storyline, and I'd have to agree, but it's too late now so there we go. I like Joe Lansdale's titles - Sanctified and Chicken-fried, Mucho Mojo, Bad Chilli, Two Bear Mambo. Also Raymond Chandler - The Big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely, The Long Goodbye. Also Jasper Fforde - The Big Over Easy, The Well of Lost Plots, First Amongst Sequels.
Does THE WHITE GALLOWS have a meaning, Rob?
The name of place where one of the crime's happen, named after a hanging that took part in the 1870s and also has a resonance with an event in the mid twentieth century in which the victim took part. There are a surprising number of place names in Ireland that contain the word 'gallows'. It's not a disaster of a title, just one that was a place holder that became a fixture.
Not at all disastrous. I hate titles that impart some sort of indefinite sentiment-Not as a Stranger sort of title. When Love is Gone. That sort of thing.
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